Art without borders: searches at Serebrennikov, Apfelbaum and Gogol Center

Gogol Center and Kirill Serebrennikov

At about 10 a.m., Dmitry Kiselev, Dmitry Kiselev, reported about 10 a.m. at the art director of Gogol-Center, director Kirill Serebrennikov. Olga Romanova later confirmed this information on Facebook. Later, employees of the Investigative Committee, with the support of OMON, came to the Gogol Center itself.

In the Gogol Center, all theater workers were gathered in the same room, the phones were selected and throughout the entire time, while the search was held, they did not release from there. “The door to Serebrennikov’s office in the theater was knocked out with your foot. One of the investigators, signing the protocols, said: “I entered myself in the history of the theater!”, Olga Beshley writes .

"Medusa" with reference to the text of the decision on the search reports that the case, on which searches for Cyril Serebrennikov and the Gogol Center are conducted in 2015 under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code ("Fraud"). We are talking about 66.5 million rubles, which the Ministry of Culture allocated to the project to popularize the Platform culture. The resolution says that on behalf of the Department of State Support of Art of the Ministry of Culture, the contract was concluded by Sofya Apfelbaum.

The financing of the Platform projects was supported by the Presidential Administration and was carried out through special programs for supporting innovative practices in the contemporary art of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation.

The search from Serebrennikov was carried out without a court order as not tolerating departments.

Later, the Investigative Committee of Russia published a press release , from which it follows that the case was instituted on theft of 200 million rubles allocated from 2011 to 2014 in accordance with the government program on the development and popularization of art. According to investigators, the money was abducted by "so far unidentified persons from among the leadership" of the organization.

Director Kirill Serebrennikov is going on in the case as a witness. After the search was completed, he was taken to the Investigative Committee for interrogation, from which he came out only after ten in the evening - the status of a witness was confirmed, the director was obliged to be an interrogation. According to Interfax, three more people were delivered for interrogation, among them - Sofya Apfelbaum, which by this time had already left the TFR building, refusing to comment on what was happening to reporters.

As the OVD-Info told the hotline of Polina Nazarova, for several hours they can’t contact one of the actors of the theater Nikita Elenev, the mobile does not answer, he is not in the apartment and the theater. Elenev lived with the producer, who was also taken away for interrogation.

In 2013, at the appeal of the Moscow Public Council for Morality and Social and significant information, the police checked Serebrennikov’s play “Sino”. In the same year, investigators interviewed Serebrennikov about the play “Man-Domeshka”, staged in the Moscow Art Theater. Chekhov based on the play of the famous English playwright Martin McDonakh. The verification of the “man-podshka” was started after the appeal of the public organization “Coalition“ For Morality ”, whose members saw in the performance of the scene of pedophilia and scenes of violence with the participation of children. Serebrennikov gave written explanations.

A number of cultural figures supported Serebrennikov and Gogol Center. Actress Chulpan Khamatova, appearing to meet the sympathetic theater today, read a letter in support of colleagues.

Already in the evening, a message appeared that the criminal case, in which searches were conducted, was instituted immediately after the audit, which the prosecutor's office conducted on the complaint of the Foundation “Art without Borders” on “obscene abuse, propaganda of immoral behavior and pornography” in the performances of the Gogol Center.

The fund held the exhibition “At the bottom”, in which he demonstrated photographs of the theater resonant performances and indicated the amount of state funds allocated for productions.

Search by Sophia Apfelbaum

Law enforcement officers also came to the director of RAMT Sofya Apfelbaum, Interfax wrote about this with reference to the coordinator of the Rus Sitting Rus Sitting Alexander Fedyarov. The search was carried out in the same case, in which they came with a search to Serebrennikov.

Until the beginning of 2015, the Apfelbaum headed the Department of State Support for Art and Folk Art of the Ministry of Culture and entered into an agreement on the allocation of funds to the Platform Platform on behalf of the Ministry of Culture.

Search on "Winzavod"

Interfax reported about searches in the Winzavod Center of Contemporary Art. He at one time was a partner of the Seventh Studio, which was headed by Serebrennikov. Together they implemented the Platform project. The Seventh Studio is an independent theater company uniting graduates of the Moscow Art Theater School from Serebrennikov.

The Vinzavod administration denies this:

Nothing of the kind, there was, there was no. Here we are calmly working: both galleries and cafes. And no one reported that someone was closed or someone later works today or later, everything is in normal mode

The artistic director of Theater.doc Mikhail Ugarov told the OVD-Info that he did not believe the Investigative Committee and believes that a criminal case under an “economic article” is just the ability to deal with objectionable.

According to him, when the “theater.doc” was faced with pressure from the authorities, it was Serebrennikov that was the first to decide to help his colleagues. In December 2014, to the theater to show fragments of the film about the Maidan “Stronger than the weapon”, police officers came , who stated that they were in the building in the building. Not finding an explosive device, law enforcement officers began to look for something else on computers and other electronic media of information-some of the equipment eventually seized, arranging a real defeat in the premises of the theater. After that, the lessor unexpectedly decided to terminate the lease with the theater and the Doc lost the premises. Serebrennikov suggested “Dok” to play performances on the stage of Gogol Center.

Then the search also took place without a warrant in connection with circumstances that do not tolerate deposits.

According to Ugarov, if law enforcement agencies have a desire to plant a person or cause him problems, they will always find a pretext. The story with the stolen 200 million rubles, the Khudruk "Doca" considers it ridiculous. Thus, according to Ugarov, the authorities sends society a message that the state is and it is necessary for society, that without a state society cannot. The same logic is guided by deputies of the State Duma, adopting "stupid little prohibitive laws." Serebrennikov is a bright famous director with a “aesthetically protest and provocative technique”, and for such a signal to society, he is an ideal figure.